Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven

Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven (1582-4 April 1661) was a Scottish Covenanter and Parliamentarian general during the Bishops' Wars and the English Civil War.

Biography
Alexander Leslie was born in Blair Castle, Scotland in 1582, and he joined the Dutch States Army in 1605 and rose to the rank of Captain during the Dutch Revolt. In 1608, he transferred to the Swedish Army and served with distinction in the Thirty Years' War, being knighted in 1627 and fighting in the Thirty Years' War. In 1638, he returned to Scotland to serve as Lord General of the Army of the Covenant, participating in the Bishops' Wars as a leader of the Covenanters. He defeated the royalists at the Battle of Newburn, and, in 1641, he was appointed to the Scottish Privy Council by his rival, King Charles I of England. He later commanded an army sent to assist the English Parliament against King Charles, fighting in the 1644 Battle of Marston Moor as a senior Parliamentarian general. In 1647, after his army was paid for its services by Parliament, his army withdrew into Scotland. Leven then retired from active command and died in 1661.